09 - Return Of The Witch (21 page)

Then it occurred to me.
The elements of nature and witchcraft went hand-in-hand in any world. All Gypsy did was take it to the extreme. It had nothing to do with a witch’s ladder, and everything to do with Wendy Skye.

Gypsy
had acquired enough of Wendy’s essence to manipulate atmospheric matter and shape-shift herself into a conscious element of nature. As unbelievable as it seemed, she had become a walking cyclone. Worse, she was coming after me.

I’ll admit
I was a bit concerned at first. All right, maybe even frightened. Oh, hell, who am I kidding? I was scared shitless. I started looking at it logically. I figured that with everything in nature, at least in our universe, there’s an order and a balance to all things, a common denominator if you will, and it all boils down to one thing.

Physics.

Even with regard to the paranormal, physics trumps all. In other words, a mini tornado is just a mini tornado, and I knew how to handle those.

I stepped out from behind the rocks and spun up a zip ball the size of a goose egg. It took shape immediately, snapping and crackling with electric spark enhanced by the abundance of static energy already in the air.

I held it out in the palm of my hand, giving her one final warning. “I don’t want to do this, Gypsy, but you’re leaving me no alternative.”

She kept coming. I
took aim and let it rip.

You know, i
n case I haven’t said it enough, I love zip balls. I think they’re the neatest things, perhaps the neatest thing one can do with energy manipulation. I mean where else in nature or witchcraft can you gather electrically conductive plasma in the palm of your hand and control its disposition wantonly?

They
’re small and powerful, yet easy to handle, and the best thing is that almost anyone can control them because you don’t so much throw them as launch them. They seem to know when it’s time to fly. You give them a nudge and they rocket out of your hand, leaving a light trail nearly the distance to their targets.

That’s what happened with th
e one I launched at Gypsy. It shot out across the field and struck her dead on. The explosion was simply beautiful. It vaporized her on impact and snuffed her out like a candle on a birthday cake.

Finished
. Fait. Vollständig. Consumado.

Was I sorry? No. She had it coming. Besides, she always said I had her temper.

I started back toward the car to radio help for the downed detectives. Just two steps in, however, a giant wave of water struck me, came out of nowhere and plowed me into the grassy ditch. As I struggled to my feet, I saw the tsunami wash out of the ditch and regenerate in the vague shape of a woman.

“Come on
…. Really?”

In a shrewd and devious display of elemental manipulation, Gypsy had managed to reconstitute her
vaporized bits, changing from wind to water without first changing back into a human. Judging from the size and strength of her new form, it appeared that April Raines, the water guardian, was herself a formidable witch with commanding powers over the essence she guarded.

“Gypsy, I know what you’re doing
, but I don’t have what you’re looking for. I don’t possess the quintessential.”

The water witch started toward me. Low black clouds began forming
above her, dropping rain on her head and feeding her growing form.

I
inched backward. “Did you hear me? I said I don’t have the quintessential!”

But of course she couldn’t
hear me. She had no ears, the bitch.

I continued backward. She continued forward.
I remember thinking about the waves out on Gloucester Beach, how they broke apart on the jetty at low tide. How that Jonah crab would duck into the crevices between the rocks before the wave hit. Now I was that crab looking for a place to hide. I felt so vulnerable, standing in the middle of a grassy ditch, cold and naked.

Then I thought, wait
. She’s just a tower of water. How could that hurt me? I stopped, spread my stance and placed my hands on my hips. The clouds had gathered considerably. Rain fell on both of us, though only she benefitted from it.

“I’m not afraid of you,” I
told her. “I kicked your ass once before; I’ll kick it again. So, go ahead. Give it your best shot.”

There’s an old saying among witches. Don’t dare when you don’t care. You might get what you ask for.

I waited for her to crash down on top of me. No big deal, I figured. I could take it. Surfers do it all the time. But water’s a funny thing. It can move mountains and carve canyons. So, when she picked up a fallen tree and tossed it at me, I shouldn’t have been surprised.

Instincts took over then. I shape-shifted into a cat and ran behind the boulders, finding shelter in the crevices just like the Jonah crab.

Safe? Hardly.

Gypsy tried flushing me out by splashing down
on top of the boulders. When that didn’t work, she reassumed human form and stepped back some twenty feet. I stuck my head out from between the rocks to see what she was up to; my eyes wide, canvassing the field beyond the trees, my ears pinned back, wet fur sticking to my skin like molasses.

I hate wet fur.

In an impressive display of her command over the elements, Gypsy balled up her fists, turned the heels of her palms to each other and bumped them together. A brilliant spark arced between them, spontaneously igniting a ball of fire that immediately turned her into a walking human torch.

The entire twilit sky
blazed orange and red. Dancing shadows flickered among the trees and boulders. I assessed that my best chance to run had just presented itself, but it passed in an instant.

With a wave of her hand, Gypsy cast a ring of fire around the boulders. It shot from her fingers like a flamethrower, a spider web of napalm laid down in a rush of wind.

I could see her diabolical plan unfolding as she continued drawing ring after ring of fire, each one closer to the center than the last.

She intended to burn me out.

Suddenly, a coat of wet fur didn’t seem like such a bad thing. Yet even that could only protect me so much. I knew if I didn’t do something quickly, then my chances of getting out alive would simply evaporate. So I did the only thing a scared kitty could do. I dashed out from between the rocks, scampered through the fire and ran up a tree.

Okay, I didn’t say it was smart, but kitty instincts are t
ough to fight. Once up the tree, I considered my options. I could remain in my present form and hope Gypsy didn’t see me, which seemed probable since I didn’t think fire Gypsy had eyes. Conversely, I could change back into human form and try to reason with her. The down side to that was the fact I had no clothes on and the tree bark was already digging into the scorched pads of my feet. I couldn’t imagine what it would do to my bare bottom.

In the end, none of that mattered. Gypsy’s flame went out and she
was again just another naked witch in the pasture. She started toward me, looking up into the tree as if unsure exactly where among the branches I was hiding. I scooted around the backside of the trunk and scampered higher. I thought I might even evade detection altogether, when she surprised me yet again.

“I know you’re up there, Lilith
.” Her voice sounded raw, as if scorched by flames. “If you come down, I’ll make it easy on you.”

I thought I’d answer her with some wisecrack remark, but that would have meant chang
ing back into human form. That’s exactly what she wanted.

I climbed higher.

“You want to know how I did it?” she asked. “How I vaporized those women?” She stood directly under the tree, looking up through the branches and the dark sky beyond. “You want to know how vapor resonance works?”

I stayed as motionless as possible, my claws digging into the tree like meat hooks.
Nothing, I thought, could budge me from that spot. Then something stirred. A squirrel, its jittery moves arousing a dark and primal instinct deep within me. I wanted so badly to chase it, to catch that fluffy tail and tear it to shreds. I flinched, thought twice and then held my place with steadfast resolve, remaining stone-cold still.

“I used the witch’s key,” said Gypsy. “That’s how I did it. Ever wonder why the key has two little holes at each end? It’s a whistle. Did you know that?”

She came around the other side of the tree and positioned herself directly beneath me. She had me in her sights now, I knew it. A white kitty on a dark colored tree can only hide for so long.

“It won’t hurt much,” she said.  “You can help by not fighting it.
I find that the stronger witches put up such a fuss, you know, so don’t make this any harder on yourself than it need be. I mean you always were a difficult child, weren’t you, Lilith?”

She
put the witch’s key to her lips and blew. I felt a silent but concentrated wave of sub-sonic energy rip through the atmosphere. It agitated every molecule of my being. Every muscle in my body, every fiber, even my teeth and bones burned with white-hot intensity.

I felt my claws dig deeper into the tree bark. My fur stood out on end. The squirrel on the branch beneath me, stiffened up like a stick and then disappeared before my eyes, vaporized in a miniscule swirl of ash and mist.

Then, just as suddenly as it began, it stopped. Gypsy had exhausted her breath. I saw her looking up into the tree, puzzled, perhaps wondering why it hadn’t work on me.

I wondered the same, and
concluded that my elevation may have had something to do with it. It seemed possible that the whistle itself was not the actuating force behind the vaporization process. Instead, it only carried the necessary sub-sonic impulse required to initiate a chain reaction in hyper-energized particle waves, starting with the closest particle source available.

In my case, that was the squirrel. The poor bastard. Now, whether Gypsy had figured that out or simply decided to try again, I’ll never know.
Just as she started blowing on the whistle again, I heard the siren.

I looked down the road
and spotted a cruiser speeding toward us, its lights flashing, siren wailing. The interesting thing was how Gypsy reacted. She let the witch’s key fall on its chain around her neck. Then she turned herself into a black puma and dashed away across the open pasture.

The car skidded to a stop behind the Ipswich cruiser. Carlos hopped out and ran to Detective Pierce
, who was still on the ground, unconscious. I heard Dominic on the radio calling in a ten-double zero, officer down. Ursula had found McIntyre in the ditch across the road. He was still breathing, but also unconscious.

“Where’s Lilith?” I heard Carlos ask.
“Lilith!”

Dominic and Ursula joined him in calling my name.

“Lilith!”

I did
n’t want to try shape-shifting back into a human while still in the tree. So I started climbing down backward, paw-over-paw. About halfway there, Ursula shouted, “I see her!”

“Where?”

She grabbed Dominic by the hand and dragged him over to the tree. “There.” She pointed up. “Oh, Sister, do be sure of paw, lest thee fall.”

“The cat?”
asked Dominic.

Carlos
ran over and positioned himself beneath the tree, his broad hands reaching for me, awaiting my descent. Ursula hurried to the cruiser and returned with my clothes. As soon as I was within Carlos’ reach, he plucked me from the tree and tucked me tightly to his chest.

“I got y
a, kiddo,” he cooed, scratching me behind the ear. “You’re safe now.”

“Look,” said Dominic. “Her paws are burned.”

“It’s just her fur. She’s alright.”

“Are you sure that’s even her? Why isn’t she changing back?”

At that point, I morphed back into a human, leaving Carlos cradling me in his arms.

“Because
I’m naked, you ass! Now turn around.”

He did, and then
Carlos set me down and did the same.

“Thy
pants and top,” said Ursula, presenting me with my clothes in a bundled wad.

“Thanks
.” I stepped into my jeans and pulled them up tight. “Man, I’m glad you guys got here when you did. I thought I was a goner for sure.”

I was just
threading my arms through my shirtsleeves when Dominic turned around and asked, “What do you mean?”

I slapped him on the
side of the head. “Did I say you could look?”

“
Sorry.” He turned away again. “But you have to tell us what happened here.”

“What happened is Gypsy. She showed up and nearly killed all of us.”

“Gypsy did all this?”

I finished buttoning my shirt. “You can look now.” The two turned around. “Yes. Gypsy did this. She’s got some freakish powers now, I’m telling you.” I started across the road toward the cruiser. “
Are the detectives all right?”

Carlos answered, “I think so. They both appear uninjured. What did she do, put a spell on them?”